One Year of Memories

Today marks one year of recording our daily family treasures online - and this also happens to be the 100th entry.

This journal started as a record to help the members of our family who live out of town be a part of our lives. I wanted it to be a collection of funny and moving moments, along with a few photos, all to capture what daily life at the Gawthroupes is. I wasn't sure that, in the end, anyone other than myself and my mother would be reading it, however I have discovered as of late that quite a few of my friends and family drop by to read my insights.

What I have discovered, however, is that this journal has turned into so much more than I first expected it would be. I have never been able to keep a regular written journal of my own, but somehow writing online has enabled me to stick to it for an entire year now! I intend to print out these entries and collect them on paper, so perhaps future generations or family members will be able to form a picture in their own minds of what we were like.

But more than this, I have found a place to think through different issues that have become important to me - emotional, mental and spiritual. Even though I am aware this is published online and open to anyone to read, I have been able to tap into a personal level and expose myself to friends and family in a way I don't often do in person. I hope that the content and style of my prose has helped them get to know me a little better. I feel that so often that as one's family grows, we tend to turn more and more inward, losing regular contact with both friends and relations. (Of course our family is most important and does require the majority of our attention.) As I read the online journals of other friends, I realize that they are naturally somewhat private thoughts that provide insight into the character and nature of these writers. And so I am grateful this blog has presented my readers a chance to get to know me on a level that otherwise might not have been attained.

I have thoroughly loved every minute of this diary of events and journal of thoughts, and have every intention of continuing for another year and 100 entries - at least!